As people learn more and more about Tommy Thompson’s career since he left Wisconsin to work in George W. Bush’s Administration, and then later at a powerful DC lobbying firm, they are discovering he will not fight for working and middle class families in Wisconsin.
And he won’t fight for seniors, or our community either. Consider the facts on the very popular, very successful Medicare program, and his strong financial ties to the big drug and pharmaceutical industries:
- While working for George W. Bush, Thompson cut a sweetheart deal with the big drug and pharmaceutical companies. This deal actually made it illegal for Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for seniors. This special interest giveaway cost taxpayers a staggering $156 billion.
- According to public records and his personal financial disclosures, while working at a big shot DC lobbying firm, and working for a number of health care companies, Thompson made a minimum of $724,100 from the pharmaceutical industry since leaving the Bush administration. In fact, as a result of all of his tight DC insider connections and special interest buddies, Thompson made a whopping $13 million in income at a powerful DC lobbying firm over the past few years.
- Thompson wants to get rid of much of the prescription drug savings in President Obama’s landmark health care reform bill — the Affordable Care Act – and give that money right back to the big drug companies. Today, seniors across Wisconsin – including many here in the community, turn to Medicare for basic health care needs and services. Before President Obama’s reforms, the Medicare prescription drug “doughnut hole” – created by George W. Bush with Tommy Thompson’s help — forced seniors to pay thousands of dollars for the medicines they need. But Barack Obama’s health care law is closing the doughnut hole, saving Wisconsin seniors millions of dollars. Tommy Thompson is running for US Senate to repeal President Obama’s success and push us backwards.
The reality is Tommy wants to reopen the doughnut hole, which would line the pockets of big drug companies and increase out of pocket costs for seniors, many on tight fixed income. He supports an extreme, radical conservative Republican scheme to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a voucher program that sticks seniors with higher health care costs. And over the past seven or so years, he has made Medicare more expensive for seniors, while swelling the profit margin for the tycoons running the big drug and pharmaceutical companies.
Tommy Thompson just isn’t for us – not the community, not seniors, not Wisconsin’s hardworking middle class families, and not Milwaukee’s hardworking families struggling to make ends meet already. It’s critical information we all need to know before we vote for US Senate on November 6th.
